


Angel

by Nyrandrea



Series: The 2D AU Headboop Saga [12]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Alternate Universe - 2D Bendy (Bendy and the Ink Machine), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2019-02-01 19:04:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12711060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyrandrea/pseuds/Nyrandrea
Summary: As Henry and Bendy delve further into the never ending and increasingly larger studio, a certain gal decides to finally make her appearance...





	Angel

“Wow…I…I don’t remember any of this.”  Henry muttered in awe along with a small hint of worry.

With a few cautioned steps, he wandered out into the large, open space, taking in as much as he could. Huge posters that advertised the old cartoons lined the walls, most of them were curled up and decrepit with old age. Musty brown couches sat on both sides of the hall with small plush-like dolls lazily sitting on the cushions, while two larger ones sat up against a large pillar that towered in the middle of the room.

The pillar held a sign and what seemed to be some sort of waterfall of ink spilling from above, Henry narrowed his eyes to read the letters.

**‘Heavenly Toys’**

He squinted even further to just make out the smaller letters that read underneath:

**'Joey Drew Studios’**

“Tch!” Henry snorted. “Of course he would try and pull off something like this. More profit, huh? Typical.”

He couldn’t even imagine how much time this would have cost the other staff members, how much back breaking work it would have taken to build all of this underneath the studio. Just the mere thought of it was enough to make his blood boil.

_'And for what? Look how it all turned for you, Joey. Hope you’re proud of yourself, 'pal’.’_

“Henry?” Bendy’s voice timidly called out from below.

“Huh?” Henry blinked as he mentally shook away his irritated thoughts before smiling down to the demon. “What’s up, bud?”

“Look.” The toon said as he pointed for Henry to look behind him. “It’s another one a’ those boxes.”

As Henry turned to investigate what the little demon was talking about, he was met with the exact same Miracle Station that he saw near the safehouse a while back. It looked like a direct copy, with the ink painted ring directly in the centre. He couldn’t help but be a little creeped out, there was something…oddly ominous about it.

“Weird place to put this in, huh?” Bendy commented, catching onto older man’s distress.

“Ah, it’s…probably not important. Maybe they just needed it for storage.” Henry said, hoping to quickly brush off the topic altogether. Bendy quieted down, not pushing the conversation any further as the animator turned his back on the large wooden container and walked further into the room.

“But this place sure is huge, ain’t it?” The demon quickly said to lighten the mood. “And hey look! It’s me!” He exclaimed with a huge grin as he pointed enthusiastically at one of the larger dolls that was tucked away in a corner.  

“I sure am cute, ain’t I?” Henry had to stifle a chuckle as he examined the life-sized doll. Just like the cut-outs, it’s grinning face was emotionally blank and almost a little condescending.

“Yeah, sure are.” Henry lied with an unsure grin.

Bendy was either blissfully oblivious or chose to ignore the human’s remark, as he turned his attention to the other large doll that sat at the base of the ebony waterfall that poured from above.

“Hey, even Boris has a doll! Wonder if Alice has one too.” The devil said as he quickly glanced around the room for any angel toys.

“Speaking of Boris, where  _is_  he?” Henry muttered as he looked for any sign of the toon wolf. Ever since he crawled through the vent to let them through to the other side, he seemed to have just…vanished.

“He’s probably around here somewhere, right? He couldn’t have gone too far, we’ll find him.” Bendy reassured, before a small frown came across his face. “But we shouldn’t waste time, Boris ain’t exactly a fighter.”

“…Yeah, you’re right. The quicker we find him, the better.” Henry agreed. Besides, they had spent enough time in this room, and he was starting to feel a little uneasy. He swore he could just… _feel_ something watching them.

With a shake of his head, he decided to brush it off, probably just old age making him paranoid.

As Henry climbed the set of stairs at the back of the hall, he gazed into the pool of ebony liquid that filled the base of the pillar, his reflection tiredly stared back. He was honestly surprised that nothing had popped out at them yet, especially with the excess amount of ink that came from above. Not wanting to chance his luck with that thought, he moved on up.

As his foot rested on the final step, the silence that encased the hall was softly broken with a strange and almost ethereal sound. Henry stopped in his tracks to listen, the sound was extremely faint but it was definitely there, it sounded like…like someone was humming, a woman. Whoever or whatever it was had a beautiful and delicate voice, it was hard not be drawn to it.

“Henry…ya hear that?” Bendy whispered, as if to try and not disturb the singing.

Henry simply nodded in silence, keeping deathly still until the voice was eventually lost to the deafening silence again. The older man let out a huge breath that he didn’t even know he had been holding.

“That voice…” Bendy muttered with a frown. “It sounded so…familiar…” The little toon’s face looked as though it was hit with a sudden realization. “Alice…”

“You really think it was her?” Henry asked with a tone of uncertainty. As beautiful and fitting the voice was to the angel, it also seemed almost… subtly threatening in a way. It could have been someone or…something else.

“It has to be! She must be around here somewhere. We gotta find her, Henry!” Bendy exclaimed with a huge, excited grin. Henry was still very skeptical, but he didn’t want to strip away the demon’s joy, so he simply nodded.

“Well…we’ll just keep moving forward and…who knows, maybe we’ll find both Boris  _and_  Alice.”

Part of him secretly hoped they wouldn’t run into the latter.

As he approached what seemed to be the entrance of a workstation, a small machine that was attached to the wall caught his attention, it held a round clock with arrowed hands that were stuck in place, as if time had been frozen. Henry plucked the musty, sepia colored piece of paper from its slot at the top of the machine and looked it over, a wave of bittersweet nostalgia washing over him as he did.  

His eyes glanced over to the poster that resided next to the punch in stand, it held a bold illustration of the station with a small bendy head logo in the middle, along with the slogan;

**_“Don’t forget to punch in!_ **

**_It could SAVE your job.”_ **

Henry couldn’t help but snort at the last statement.

The older man carefully slotted the paper back in, being sure not to activate it as he could remember the clock in noise being pretty damn loud, and the last thing he needed was attracting the wrong kind of attention.

“Always on time…” Henry muttered quietly with a small smile as the paper slipped back into place.

“What was that?” Bendy asked curiously, not quite hearing what the human had said.

“Nothing.” He quickly replied as he walked away from the machine and towards a lever that resided nearby, with a small push, both man and toon were slightly startled when the sound of a machine whirring to life echoed around the corner.

Large black cables that were strewn across the wooden floors guided him into a workstation, where a much more ominous poster waited for them.

_**“Work hard. Work happy.”** _

“Geez Joey, you sure know how to encourage your staff.” Henry bitterly said with a shudder. Bendy simply looked down, choosing not to make a comment on the matter.

A small and very cramped room opened up to them, cluttered with a workbench, scattered tools, a half rotted ladder that laid against the opposite wall and shelves that held excessive rows upon rows of Alice and Boris plushies, the whole scene was just an accident waiting to happen.

“Oh hey, she does have one!” Bendy noted with a small grin, referring back to the doll conversation.

“Yeah, she uh…has quite a few actually.” Henry replied with a raised brow, the Alice dolls far outnumbered the Boris ones, it was as if there was some kind of backlog. Maybe they just made too many?

Henry took a peek through the shelves, only to immediately frown as he saw the door to the next location on the other side. Even if he took away the dolls, there was no way he was going to be able to squeeze through the tight space, and he couldn’t exactly break it down since he lacked a weapon to do so.

Glancing around the room, he noticed there was a lack of ink as well, so asking for Bendy’s assistance was also out of the question.

“Why is there always something blocking the door?” The older man rhetorically asked with a sigh. “Gotta be a way through…”

He turned his attention to the large machinery that was attached to the walls, thick cables ran along the floor to lead to a small lever, it was worth a try. With a small grunt, he pushed the rusted contraption, only for absolutely nothing to happen. He tried again a few times but to no avail.

_'Damn thing must be broken…now what?’_

“Oh! Henry look! Those dolls are stuck in those belt wheel things over there, that must be what’s blockin’ 'em.” Bendy pointed out, resulting in Henry blinking as he felt like a complete idiot for not noticing.

“Great, now I’m getting old and blind.” Henry muttered as he pulled the toys out of the clogged-up machinery. Bendy crossed his arms and huffed at the human’s negative attitude.

“Hey now! For a stubborn old guy, I think you’re faring really well!”

“Geez, thanks, I really appreciate it.” Henry replied flatly, although Bendy was as oblivious as ever to the tone.

“You’re very welcome!” The toon cheerfully replied.

Once Henry finally managed to rip the dolls out of every nook and cranny and the belt wheels started rolling smoothly again he decided to try out the lever once more. With a loud grind and a shuddering clunk, the wooden shelves that blocked the way moved along the cords and swayed to a stop in a single motion, a few toys falling off at the sudden jolt of movement.

“Hey, we did it.” Henry said in a much more pleased tone. “Nice work, bud.”  

“You too, Henry!” The demon enthusiastically replied, before curiously gazing over at something that suddenly piqued his interest. “Wait, what’s that over there?

Henry looked over, noticing a desk that was tucked away behind the shelves.

"Huh…” As he got closer, he saw that there was nothing much of interest, although two things stood out; A small wooden bowl with what appeared to be some kind of ink lump that was shaped like Bendy’s head and a tape recorder.

“Been a while since I’ve seen one of these. Let’s see if there’s any valuable info here…” As he hit the play button, a high pitched male voice with a strong Irish accent echoed throughout the room, he recognized it but he could barely remember the guy’s name. Shawn something?

_“I don’t be seein what the big deal is._

_So what if I went and painted some of those Bendy dolls with a crooked smile? That’s sure no reason for Mr. Drew to be flyin’ off the handle at me.”_

Henry couldn’t help but snort at that, looks like he wasn’t the only one to experience Joey’s anger first-hand.

_“And if he **really**  wants to be so helpful, he could be tellin’ me what I’m to be doin’ with this warehouse I got full of that angel whatchamacallit. Not a scrap of that mess be sellin’!_

_Probably have to melt it all down to be rid of it all.”_

As the tape rolled out, Henry frowned slightly. So  _that_  was why there were so many Alice dolls, none of them were making a profit.

"Huh…guess she wasn’t as popular as we thought she was going to be. Shame…”

He glanced down to Bendy, who looked a little sullen at the new information.

“…You alright?” The older man softly asked, making the devil snap out of his trance.

“Huh? Me? Yeah, I’m fine. Guess it’s just one a’ those things. Those folks just didn’t know what they were missin’, Alice was a…” He paused for a brief moment before correcting himself. “… _Is_  a great gal’.

Henry simply gave the toon a small smile in response, deciding it was probably best to drop the subject, but it seemed like the studio itself begged to differ, as the next room held an entire shrine to the angel.

A dim, flashing ceiling light was the only thing that barely managed to illuminate the room, but it was bright enough to show the countless Alice dolls and posters that were to the right, a single cut-out of the girl to the left and a large, stained glass panel straight ahead that showed what appeared to be some sort of display space with a decrepit sign hanging above:

**'She’s Quite a Gal!’**

Henry cautiously walked in and frowned at the sheer strangeness of it all, it was clear that this was some sort of tribute room for the angel. It was extremely unsettling, to say the least, and Henry wanted nothing more than to get out.

"Do ya…do ya think she’s around here?” Bendy asked with a somewhat hopeful expression. “Oh, I do miss her…” He trailed off. Henry’s brow furrowed in concern, he knew the toon was just trying to be optimistic, but the whole situation was making him uneasy, maybe he was going to have to be more blunt.

“Look, I don’t think-”  

His words were abruptly cut off as the dim light from above suddenly flashed off, leaving the room in total darkness.  

_**'Henry?!’** _

_'It’s alright, I’m still here.’_   He mentally tried to reassure the demon, who was emanating a small burst of panic. The older man tried his best to keep both himself and Bendy as calm as possible, but with the strong sense of dread that was slowly creeping down his spine, it was proving difficult.  

Luckily, the bulb clung itself back to life, as a small spark illuminated the room once more with small flickering flashes, both Henry and Bendy had no time to react though, as the room suddenly jolted to life with an upbeat musical tune.

The animator couldn’t help but flinch as the small box-like tv screens that hung from the ceiling glinted with static for a few seconds, before the all too familiar face of the angel herself showed up. Henry grimaced as her sweet, sing-song like voice filled the room with a small sigh and a cheeky giggle.

“Henry…” Bendy started before a huge grin spread across his face. “It’s Alice! I told you she was here!”  

Henry simply glanced down with a look of worry, not even getting the chance to say anything in return as her voice completely filled the room:

_“I’m the cutest little angel sent from above, and I know just how to swing. I got a bright little halo and filled with love, I’m Alice Angel!”_

“What the Hell…?” Henry muttered in complete disbelief, every inch of muscle in his body was screaming at him to run.

_**'It’s alright, Henry!’**_ Bendy mentally reassured him. _ **'She just likes a snazzy entrance, that’s all.’**_

_“I’m a hit of the party, I’m the belle of the ball, I’m a toast of every town, just one little dance, I’ll own your heart… I’m Alice Angel!”_

_**'Maybe…maybe she’s behind the glass, go have a look.’**_ Henry gave the demon a look of scepticism, but reluctantly complied. With a few cautious steps, he made his way up to the glass, taking a peek inside. As much as he squinted, he couldn’t see a damn thing.

He didn’t have that problem for long though.

_“I ain’t no flapper, I’m a classy dish, and boy can this girl sing.’_

The room behind the glass suddenly flashed to life with an echoing click, there wasn’t much in the room; Cardboard cut-out clouds, a door with a star and…he swore he saw something move there.

_"This gal can grant your every wish-”_

A dark shadow swiftly popped up from underneath, and as it banged it’s fists on the glass with a booming thump, it screamed.

_**“I’M ALICE ANGEL!”** _

Henry froze on the spot as the black creature glared at him briefly. It looked like a woman, with a horribly disfigured face, the left side had a gaping hole where the mouth should have been, her eye on the same side was a lifeless black abyss. She had ebony hair, inked hands, two small horns, a halo…

Just as Henry managed to string together the sudden quick-fire of information, the woman screeched before slamming her fists against the glass once again, this time completely smashing it in one blow. Henry fell back at the sudden attack, and snarled as he felt an intense and painfully sharp jab just above his right eye as what he assumed was a shard of glass cut into his skin.

The older man quickly pulled the ragged shard out and clutched the wound as something warm and wet trickled down the side of his face. When he gained his senses, he found himself in complete darkness again, the chaos died down, sending the room into a sinister silence.

“Henry!” Bendy’s voice quietly cried out. “ Henry, are ya ok?!” The toon was absolutely radiating of worry, so much so that it nearly sent Henry’s own heart racing.

“I-I’m alright bud, just calm down. I’m fine.” He said firmly but gently, it seemed to work as the waves of emotion died down a tad.

As the silence drew out longer, he wondered if the woman…thing was still in the other room, or if she had somehow managed to get in this one.  

_“I see you there.”_

Well that answered his question.

_“A new fly in my endless web.”_  Her smooth, silky voice sent the hairs on the back of his neck straight up, a subtle movement in the shadows caught the corner of his eye, but his body was too frozen in fear to move. Some of it was his but…Bendy seemed to be overwhelmed with terror, and waves of it was being sent through the connection, rendering his body immobilised.

_'Bendy…’_  Henry mentally grimaced, but he couldn’t do anything but sit there as the voice continued, it seemed to have two tones now, one high and one a little lower. He could feel a presence come up from behind him.

_“Come along now.”_ A soft but icy hand softly caressed his cheek from behind, before slowly and almost seductively moving up to clutch his own hand, which was still held over his fresh wound, her voice dropped to a mere whisper.

_“Let’s see if you’re worthy to walk with angels.”_

Henry’s eyes widened with realisation, but just as he was about to question her, the lights snapped back on, revealing that she had disappeared, the only evidence of her presence being that of the smashed window. The ex animator could only stare in disbelief before a faint scent of copper wafted into his nose, making his face scrunch up slightly.

With a small grimace, he slowly lowered his hand from his brow, flinching when he saw the fresh coat of blood that covered his fingers and palm. A slight twinge of worry pulled at his mind.

“Hen…Henry…?”

The older man looked down and strained a small smile at the demon, who’s face had fear and concern written all over it. Henry couldn’t help but feel guilty every time the demon pulled that face, which was pretty often.

“It’s fine, bud. Just a small gash, didn’t catch my eye, thank God.” Henry said with a quiet sigh of relief. It was bad enough when his leg was injured, never mind being blinded.

“Oh…but it’s bleeding…” Bendy timidly pointed out, Henry was quick to catch onto his point and ripped off a bit off the sleeve of his shirt before wrapping around the side of his head and over the wound as a sort of make-shift bandage.

He made sure not a single drop of blood got onto Bendy’s page.

After dressing his wound and making sure it was nice and tight, he decided to remain seated on the floor for a few minutes more so he could regain his composure. With a few deep breaths, he finally managed to slow down his still pounding heart, even if it was just by a little bit. At least it was something.

“…o…as…at…” Bendy’s mumbled with a spaced out and mildly disturbed look.

“Didn’t quite catch that, bud.” Henry inquired.

A few moments of silence followed.

“…Who was that?” Bendy finally asked again with a more focused frown. Henry felt himself mirroring the same expression.

“You and I both know who that probably was.” The human said bluntly, he was willing to put up with the toon’s naivety before but after what had just happened…

“It wasn’t Alice.” Bendy quickly said, wanting to rule out the obvious possibility immediately.  

“Bendy, you saw what she-”

“It was  _not_ her.” The demon stated with a firmer tone this time, a small beat of annoyance hitting the connection.

Henry, deciding it was best not to push the topic, simply said, “Well…maybe it was a copy of her. Like how that other Bendy is a copy of you?” He tried with a lighter tone.

“Yeah…yeah I think you’re probably right. The real Alice has still gotta be around here somewhere…” Bendy said with a little more positivity, before a feeling of guilt overcame him.

“Sorry for snappin’ at ya, Henry. Are ya alright? How’s the cut?” He asked tentatively.  

“There’s no need to apologize, I understand.” The older man replied with a nod and smile, before chuckling, “And for the last time, I’m alright. It’ll heal up soon enough.”

“Heh…I know.” Bendy said with a sheepish grin. “But it’s my job to worry!” He added with a prideful tone. “Someone’s gotta do it.” The toon boasted with a big grin.

Henry simply shook his head and rolled his eyes in response, though with a slight wince due to fresh wound still stinging a little.  

“Alright…we should get out of here, before something else decides to show up.” Henry grunted as he got up from the ground, his bones creaking in protest as he did. “Hope Boris is faring better than we are.”

“Yeah. H-he should be ok though, I’m sure of it.” Bendy’s voice held a hint of uncertainty, but he made sure to mask it with his usual upbeat grin. “But…are ya ok to walk? Yer legs are shakin’ a little.”  

“Just the adrenaline wearing off, takes longer than it used to, unfortunately.” The human sheepishly admitted. The demon gave him a look of understanding.

“Well just be sure not to strain yourself, ok?”

“You got it, boss.” He teased the toon with a smirk, who returned the gesture.

Feeling a little more at ease, he spotted a small passageway to the right that exited the room, which he was more than glad about. The corridor was short but winded with several web-filled corners, and as he reached a wall that looked as though it had been knocked down, two split paths opened themselves up to him.

Both branches were branded with an ink splattered sign that read:

_**'The Demon’**_  and  _ **'The Angel.’**_

**Author's Note:**

> So which path will the boys take? Each one will have their consequences...
> 
> Let me know what y'all think!


End file.
